Adjusting to new Territories
by Mediziner
Summary: Armada: This takes place a bit with one of the episodes: Regeneration but a little extension of my own ideas... After Starscream had allowed the Autobots to analyze his data for the coordinates of the Decepticon base, he tries to adjust to the Autobots' ways and territory... But, it isn't as easy as it sounds... Only time will slowly get him used to the adjustments. T to be Safe.


_Mediziner's Notes: This One Shot is an Art Trade with Miklche04 on __**DeviantART**__. Probably one of the longest and yet also challenging request in an AT I've been given, I hope everyone enjoys it!_

-

"...With the votes of the Mini-Cons, and the kids, Starscream will be allowed to stay in our base." Came Optimus' reply as Hot Shot mentally growled to himself, unable to believe that even the kids and the Mini-Cons allowed this, despite all the crimes Starscream had done many eons ago, he then left the room without a word.

Starscream himself felt no relief, nor was he at ease despite being allowed shelter in the Autobot's base with the votes of both the kids and the Mini-Cons... How dare Megatron and Thrust had plotted in the end to have him deactivated... First he was looked down upon as nothing but _scum_ to his leader, now he was to be disposed of? Despite having also given the Autobots permission to analyze his data for the Decepticon's coordinates, he couldn't wait to tear that excuse of a glitch, Megatron...

While the Autobots had seemed obviously uneasy about his presence in the base, the one Mech that hadn't taken it easily was none other than Hot Shot. The Seeker could swear if he heard more of the annoying bot's protesting, he would lose his temper... Especially when the words **_'I'm not finished with you yet, Starscream.'_** continued to occasionally echo within his processor from time to time. Grumbling dreadfully to himself, he was gestured by SideSwipe to a room as he quietly followed willingly, which seemed to catch a few of the Autobots by surprise, but eventually ignored it for now as there were many things to discuss. When both SideSwipe and Starscream entered a small but spacey room, he was told to lay on a berth. The young Mech was preparing a couple equipment as the Seeker looked around the room, this seemed to be decorated not too long ago with various machinery... Perhaps the work done by SideSwipe.

Afterwards, his orange coloured optics shifted to SideSwipe, no mistake that despite he's encountered and known various Autobots from back when the war was only on Cybertron, he had not heard of the young Mech. While yes, Starscream had seen him in battle a couple of times, he had not seen him during the battle on Cybertron... Perhaps he functioned differently from how a common warrior would function? Finally, SideSwipe turned around to face Starscream with a small item in his hands.

"Uhhh, in order for me to extract the data and analyze it... I-I'll need to place this onto you, Starscream." SideSwipe said nervously, to the Seeker's amusement, SideSwipe was pretty scared... Probably by carefully observing the Mech's behaviour and... Perhaps small size, he didn't look like a tough Autobot warrior... But, as many of the Decepticons have said various times, even if Autobots may appear small in appearance, some could be one of the most toughest such as Bumblebee, the head of the Autobot Scouts.

Starscream didn't make any movements as SideSwipe cautiously begin connecting the small data extractor to the top of his helm as the Mech's nervousness was clearly amusing him too much, causing him to smirk.

"You're afraid of me." He began with a slight chuckle, causing the blue Mech to slightly jump at the Seeker's sudden raspy speaking.

"Erm... No..." SideSwipe lied, he wasn't good at lying about his fear as he slowly backed away, reaching over for a cord to plug onto the small data extractor. While the Autobots didn't possess the technology to extract data completely from the host, they at least can make copies to send to their computers. Once the data have been all copied and downloaded to the small computer which only took about fifteen minutes, SideSwipe began cautiously removing the cord and eventually, the extractor.

"It's done now, Starscream." He said slowly as he backed up.

"Good." The Seeker slowly getting up as he left the room without any further words. He could definitely do with some alone time. The Air Defense Team Mini-Cons followed behind. They wondered where could Starscream be going as they realized he was heading for the exterior of the base. Luckily, this passage was well out of human sight as they continued to follow and follow... When Starscream had reached his destination, slight footsteps could be heard as Hot Shot came out of his hiding place.

"So, this is where you've been." He said, approaching Starscream as the Seeker at first didn't move, but when he sensed the yellow Mech was close enough, he turned around.

"What do you want? The others already have the data they're analyzing from me, there is nothing more that I can offer to give to the Autobots." Starscream rasped, crossing his arms.

"I still don't think you deserve to be one of us." Hot Shot spat, partially growling as both the Mini-Cons, Swindle, Jolt, and the Air Defense Team distanced themselves from the two angry bots.

"Listen, I'm no longer part of Megatron's team nor do I plan on going back but if it's a fight you want, then bring it on." The Seeker said, shifting to a hand to hand combat stance as this pushed Hot Shot's temper sky high as two engaged in a fight. Their hands locked in a grapple as they fought, Jolt and Jetstorm beeped to one another as they exclaimed that this pointless fight must be stopped.

_"Someone's gotta go in there and get them to stop fighting before they tear each other to pieces!"_ Jetstorm beeped angrily but also with heavy concern, placing his little hands on his helm in a panic.

_"What am I supposed to do, charge in aimlessly and get myself injured!?"_ Beeped Jolt, his tone with heavy worry it sounded like a high pitched beep.

Runway and Sonar beeped in alarm of their attention, to which they find Starscream about to land a punch on Hot Shot but the attack had been blocked.

Starscream cursed to himself mentally as the two continued fighting. _'That idiot, Hot Shot, should understand I despise Megatron now and I don't plan to follow him... Fragging hack should get those audio receptors of his checked.'_ He snarled, both bots gaining distance from one another. They charged at each other to land another attack but before they could, a large boulder had been chucked at them as they immediately got out of the way of the boulder. The Seeker looked over to see who was the one throwing the boulder and what stood at the top of a small hill was a Transformer in shades of white, brown, and a dark orange.

He watched as Hot Shot turned his attention away from him and towards the mysterious bot, seeming to find this amusing as he watched the two clashed into one another until when the mysterious newcomer had used his right arm, shaped in that of a shovel scooped, grabbed Hot Shot with only that arm and tossing him aside. Afterwards, his target shifted towards him as Starscream wasted no time in fighting the Mech, but finding himself also taken down.

"Being on the Autobot side means working together, not against each other." The mysterious Mech spoke as Hot Shot's sky blue optics glowed at this, Starscream himself not surprised at whom the Mech is.

"It can't be... Smokescreen!?"

"That's right, I'm back better than ever! Oh and, call me Hoist now." The Excavator said as he chuckled. The Seeker picked himself back up where as Hoist quickly spoke. "Take it easy, I've already been briefly informed by your siding with the Autobots."

"Hmph." With that, Starscream marched back into the base as the Air Defense Team and Swindle followed after the jet. All sorts of things went through his processor as he walked as the kids were just about to leave as he notices them waving goodbye to the Autobots. One of the humans, Alexis, spotted Starscream returning to the command center as she tried to be friendly, waving goodbye to Starscream before leaving. _'Humans are strange...'_ He thought to himself as he watched Alexis leave the base with the boys, no surprise that it's pretty dark out and they're returning home. He shifted his orange optics to Jetfire and Optimus as they were asking SideSwipe how has the decoding been so far, as to which the young Mech responded with that he's only gotten around twenty-five percent decoded, no surprise.

_'Hmph, I just can't understand why these Autobots waste time interacting with those human kids... They'll only get in the way and they're not even warriors... But no surprise when they've first learned about us. If only they have not, they wouldn't have involved themselves in our battle...'_ He thought as he hadn't notice that the Air Defense team had flown up with Swindle in their grip, placing him and setting themselves on his pauldrons. _'Still, they should have stayed out of the battle, and instead keep themselves quiet about whatever they've seen so far.'_ His visuals shifting briefly to the Mini-Cons seating themselves on one of his pauldrons.

"Hey, Starscream." Came Jetfire's voice as the Seeker focused his attention on the Autobot Second in Command, the Mech's arms crossed. "Optimus told me to show you where your quarters are."

Starscream only looked at Jetfire for a brief moment before giving a slight nod to the Space Shuttle as he followed him. It slightly bothered the Jet that unlike the Decepticon Lunar Base, the Autobots' HQ was very, very heavily lit... Would they be afraid of the dark or something? Either way, he shrugged to himself mentally as he continued to follow Jetfire. EVentually, Jetfire punched in the codes to open a room that was fairly bare other than a desk and a fairly sized recharging berth. "There, your quarters." Jetfire said as he began to take his leave as Starscream entered.

He studied the room all around, observing each and every spot as it seemed almost entirely the same like the one back on the Decepticon Lunar Base but... Less rickety looking. His optics shifting to the recharging berth as he frowned, it was too close to the walls, providing no room for his wings. He sat at the desk as the Air Defense Team and Swindle had settled themselves on top of it, chattering away to one another peacefully. Starscream paid them no mind but everything to him just felt... Different now that he's with the Autobots... He wasn't sure why he had decided to side with the Autobots, when he had tossed the Star Saber to Optimus while the Prime was in his Jet Super Mode and get Tidal Wave off of his back...

Of course... Not only that he didn't have to deal much with the Autobots since they don't like fighting their own teammates, his own long time enemy, Hot Shot, was what humans would call 'A thorn in their sides'. Everything about the Autobots... This was going to take a long time to get used to.

Later that night, Starscream was already beginning to get tired as he stood up, the Mini-Cons were already deep in recharge, curled up like little balls. The former Decepticon carefully picked them up, making sure not to stirr them back into awake as he left his quarters, perhaps to find a different place for them to sleep while he'd find himself a different place to sleep, not wanting to get his wings completely sore from trying to get comfortable. Along the way, he came into a room where it seemed most of the Autobot captured Mini-Cons are sleeping, especially the Race Team Mini-Cons, the ones that can combine into the Skyboom Shield.

**"Hey! What are you doing with the Mini-Cons!? You ****_double crossing_**** us, now...!?"**

Starscream spun around immediately, but with no intention of withdrawing his wing sword, even though he nearly was about to. The one that shouted out was none other than Hot Shot as he grumbled to himself, he didn't want to deal with the annoying yellow Mech when he's already starting to feel tired himself.

"If you're looking for a fight, I'm not interested. I'm a part of your team now whether you like it or not, Hot Shot." Starscream rasped tiredly as he continued. "I only came here to let Swindle and the Air Defense Mini-Cons sleep with their brethren, is that such a bad thing to do...?" Before he could let Hot Shot answer, he marched out of the room quietly after placing the Mini-Cons with the others.

_'Slag it... That hack is getting on my nerves...'_ Starscream growled to himself in his thoughts, _'If hopefully I'm not wrong, the Autobots should have my data decoded by first light, then that will be when I can finally take out Megatron for good... He'll get what he deserves for abandoning me out on the battlefield...'_ He snapped himself out of his thoughts as he came to a large storage room decorated with large crates... He seemed relieved that no one else is around... While not much of any other place to sleep that has rooms for his wings, he would definitely need the room as he began to stack up some crates to act as a recharging berth. Once he had finished, he slowly got himself comfortable, and fell into recharge...

-

"Hey, wake up." Came a calm yet also cold voice as Starscream stirred, slowly awakening as his optical sensors were blurry for a moment, until they've cleared as he sees the Autobot Sniper, Blurr. "I don't know what you're doing recharging here nor do I want to know why, but We've got work to do." Blurr coldly added before walking off, leaving the room. Starscream narrowed his optics as he stared at the Sharpshooter until he was well out of sight. The Seeker gave himself a few more moments of alone time before getting up, heading out of the room he's in and into what seemed to be the rec room.

No surprise, Hot Shot was sitting off to the side glaring daggers at him, the yellow Mech enjoying his own cube of energon which appeared to be a green colour instead of regular, healthy pink energon... What Hot Shot is appearing to have, Starscream paid no mind as he gathered himself a cube, sitting on the far opposite side of the room away from the glaring bot. In truth, Starscream couldn't wait to get his hands on Megatron, he wanted that hack to be begging for his life, begging for mercy, begging to be spared. The thoughts swirling in the jet's mind as he smirked to himself as he mentally chuckled.

No sooner than later did Optimus and his Second in Command enter the rec room... He really did not want to deal with Hot Shot at the moment if no one else were to be present, which luckily to his relief, the yellow bot had turned his attention away from him and to his superiors. He sipped his cube as he overhears Optimus that he shouldn't consume an entire cube full of the substance that Hot Shot dubs 'JaAm'. The sounds of soft thrusters caught his audio receptors as the Air Defense Mini-Cons had flown to his table while Swindle sped towards him in his alt mode. Despite Starscream left him with the other Mini-Cons overnight, he still never understood why the Star Saber Mini-Cons kept clinging to him when he's told them a few times that they're free to do whatever they want.

Once they finished, the Seeker made his way over to their Command Center while his Mini-Cons followed. Hoist, Red Alert, and SideSwipe were hard at work on some controls. Soon, they were joined by Blurr as they began to work on searching for any of the Mini-Cons that could be dormant, hidden away somewhere on the planet. As Starscream came to one of the panels, he seemed disappointed with the technology that the Autobots currently possess while the Decepticons themselves had much more... But he wasn't complaining as he sets off to work.

The former Decepticon spent a few good joors on searching for any dormant Mini-Cons but to no avail, so he decided to leave the Command Center and search for their training room, he could do with refining his skill with a sword. Time passed as he practised and practised with his wing sword, his processor flooded with questions he kept asking himself if he's made the right choice in deciding to side and work with the Autobots. While thinking things out, he hadn't heard someone enter the Training room.

Hot Shot, who had just came into the Training room, observed the Seeker's movements, often wishing he'd be able to do some of that despite he'd wield the Star Saber before Sideways had deceived him, costing the loss of the weapon into Decepticon hands... Now it's back here along with the Skyboom Shield. After enough observing, he moved onto other things as he grabs a blaster from the racks... Turning on his heel, he moved onto some targets that were already set up, paying the Seeker no mind as the yellow Mech began practising on the targets. Both were paying each other no mind as they focused on their skills despite the intense, uneasy atmosphere radiating from the both of them.

At the sound of the door hissing to an open, at the same time Blurr had stepped inside of the Training Room, with strong instinct, both Starscream aimed his sword and Hot Shot aiming his blaster while Blurr immediately froze, not expecting such a... Dangerous greeting and also sensing such an intense atmosphere be dangerously radiating with hatred from the two of the Mechs. Blurr mentally groaned, whispering to himself as he shook his head _'Oh brother...'_ before walking off, away from the scene.

Slowly, they returned back to their business until when Hot Shot eventually had enough, hearing the sounds of Starscream's sword swiping about as the Seeker practised eventually caused him to walk off to the side, hang the blaster back up as he unseemingly grabs onto a regular Cybertronian Sword. Sensing this, the former Decepticon ceased his practise, his orange optics shifting to the yellow Mech as he approached.

Neither of them said a thing, but perhaps getting the message of the want of challenging one another to a small duel... Slowly, but also sharply, the two readied themselves. Hot Shot expected Starscream to start but instead Starscream beckoned him, gesturing him to start a few swings as if he wanted to test him. Hot Shot gave himself a moment before charging at the jet. Their swords met with a loud clang, Starscream continued to defend himself, however he was very unamused with Hot Shot's swings... They felt rather inexperienced and somewhat... Dull... Why Optimus Prime allowed him to wield the Star Saber in the first place, he'll never know.

This time, when the door hissed to an open, neither of them broke their strong intense concentration when the kids came in as they were calling for Hot Shot. Immediately, they kept themselves quiet, though luckily the moment of the sound of their voices didn't seem to break the Mechs out of heavy intense concentration as they watched with interest, sometimes passing votes to one another about who they think who would win the duel. They had to wear ear buds as the sounds of heavy metal clanging against one another with strong force was very, very loud. They observed as the two Mechs took turns on offense and defense, which often rotated whenever an opening was made.

The intense atmosphere was nothing compared to the ones they felt when both the Autobots and Decepticons battled when they were brought along to some Mini-Con hunts, instead of the usual atmosphere of hatred and fighting spirit, it was more of an atmosphere of rivals, competing to be the strongest over the other. Finally, after some time has passed, they stopped, ceasing their attacks as they backed up. Starscream's sword folded back into his left wing as he reattached it to his body as Hot Shot hung the sword back up on the rack. The kids watched with concern... There isn't going to be another fight, is there?

However, to their surprise, instead of another attack... They instead, shook hands. The Mechs knew that while they may possibly never get along due to their long history of being arch rivals for millions of years, but they would try to put aside their differences...

...And work as a **team**.


End file.
